PORTAGE, MI -- Portage Public Schools’ director of human resources is the employee allegedly involved in an “inappropriate relationship” with Ric Perry, who resigned Monday as Portage school superintendent, according to people with direct knowledge of the school board’s investigation into the matter.

Tom Zahrt, Koeze’s predecessor as Portage's HR director, was among those interviewed in the investigation and he said it centered on Perry’s relationship with Koeze, as did another person involved in the investigation who asked not to be named.

Eric VerHey, president of Portage Education Association, was
interviewed as part of the board investigation. He would not confirm
that Koeze was a focus, but did say the investigator’s questions went
beyond an alleged affair and indicated concerns about a potential
abuse of “district time and money.”

“That was very clear,” VerHey said.

Although Perry, 57, was forced out by the school board, Koeze remains
in her job. Her contract runs through June 2014 and her salary this
school year is $107,302.

Koeze, 47, has not responded to requests by MLive/Kalamazoo Gazette for comment. Perry and Portage school board President Bo Snyder declined to comment, citing the ongoing legal dispute between Perry and the board.

The school board appointed Perry interim superintendent in June 2011 and awarded him a two-year contract as superintendent in March 2012.

Perry initially hired Koeze as a consultant in December 2011. After that, he:

Hired her as human resources director, although her experience is in curriculum and instruction. Zarht said the appointment was made against his recommendation.

Authorized additional payments to Koeze as a consultant after she became a salaried employee on Feb. 1, 2012. The district cut checks for $6,000 for five days of work, according to records obtained by MLive/Kalamazoo Gazette through the Freedom of Information Act. On four of the five days, Koeze received both her salary and her consultant’s fee, despite Perry’s assurance that her salary would be docked on days she worked as a consultant, documents show.

Granted her a two-year contract, contrary to the district’s practice to initially give a one-year contract to administrators new to the district. Koeze was the only new administrator hired last year given a two-year contract, the district has confirmed.

Koeze was West Ottawa superintendent from 2007 to 2011, and had a salary of $205,000 when she left in the summer of 2011 to take on a position directing an International Baccalaureate program in Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates.

Koeze filed for divorce from her husband in December 2011. The divorce is still pending, according to Ottawa County court records.

Koeze hired by Portage

In fall 2011, Koeze stayed in West Michigan instead of going to Abu Dhabi. She was working as an educational consultant when she was hired by Portage Public Schools to develop a new evaluation system for teachers and administrators.

Koeze was paid $1,200 a day by Portage schools, with the money coming from a federal Title II grant, and she worked for 10.5 days in December 2011 and January 2012, according to records obtained through FOIA.

On Feb. 1, Koeze was named interim human resources director, replacing Zahrt, who took a job with the Kalamazoo Regional Educational Services Agency. She began receiving a weekly salary of $1,750 as a contracted employee, plus health and dental benefits.

Her hiring raised eyebrows among some Portage residents who questioned her qualifications to run a human resources department. Some also said it seemed hypocritical to hire an HR director who had been recently arrested for domestic assault in an incident that involved drinking, when only months before the district had reassigned a teacher and an administrator involved in high-profile drunken-driving cases.

“I expressed two concerns” about Koeze’s appointment, said Debbie Rude, a former Portage parent and former director of Parents for Public Schools for Greater Kalamazoo. “It was very clear to me that she was not qualified, and she had these personal issues. … Is that the person we want running our human resources department?”

Rude, who recently moved to Chicago, also expressed concerns to school board members that Koeze was “wasting” the district’s time and money by developing new tools and forms for teacher evaluations versus using a well-vetted, off-the-shelf model readily available to educators.

Zahrt told the Gazette that Koeze was not his recommendation for the job. “I felt she was a bit stronger in curriculum and instruction” as compared to human resources, Zahrt said. “But you make your recommendation and your boss does what he wants to do.”

At the time, Perry maintained the district was very lucky to get someone of Koeze’s caliber.

“We have a thorough vetting process for new employees, and are fortunate to attract an administrator of Dr. Koeze’s standing,” Perry said at a Feb. 13, 2012, school board meeting. “Dr. Koeze’s mix of educational administration and human resources experience makes her a perfect fit for this position.”

Consultant fees

Perry said that one reason for the “perfect fit” was that Koeze’s new responsibilities dovetailed so well with her work in revamping Portage’s employee evaluation system.

But even though revamping the evaluation system was wrapped into Koeze’s new job, she continued to collect pay as a consultant on top of her salary.

Financial records show that Koeze received $6,000 for consulting with Portage schools after starting as interim HR director on Feb. 1.

That included a $3,600 check for consulting on Feb. 8, Feb. 20 and Feb. 29, and a second check for $2,400 for consulting on March 22 and April 30, according to financial records obtained by the Gazette through FOIA.

The February bill does not specify Koeze’s activities for those days. The March and April days were for “facilitation of core team,” according to the bill.

There is a handwritten notation on the February bill: “On days Patricia does the consultant training, she does not get paid …. PPS wage – non paid days – per Ric Perry.”

Payroll records show Koeze received her full salary for four of the five weeks in which she spent a day as a consultant. The only deduction occurred in her May 17 paycheck, which was reduced by $349, the equivalent of a day’s pay.

Brad Banasik, legal counsel of the Michigan Association of School Boards, said there is a state law that prohibits public employers from paying employees as consultants if the employee is on the payroll for more than 30 hours a week.

The arrangement with Koeze doesn’t fall under that law because the consulting contract was signed before she went on the payroll. Still, Banasik said that paying an employee a consultant fee on top of their salary is “unusual.”

Snyder, the school board president, was asked if the district was aware that Koeze had received $4,800 in consulting fees on the same days she was receiving a salary from the district.

In response, he said, “It’s a personnel issue before legal counsel and it would not be appropriate to comment.”

Permanent job

Koeze was named permanent human resources director effective June 18, 2012, at a salary of $91,000, personnel records shows.

But her pay was bumped to $107,302 with a two-year contract that went into effect July 1, 2012.

As with Perry, Koeze’s contract contains a “morality clause” that allows for termination of her employment if she has engaged in “moral turpitude, misconduct, dishonesty, fraud, insubordination, incompetency.”

In September, the board authorized its legal counsel to investigate whether Perry and Koeze were having an “inappropriate relationship.” The decision to conduct a formal investigation came after months of rumors that the two were having an affair.

“When I hear rumors, I ignore them the first time,” Rude said. “I might look up the second time. By the third time, I might believe 50 percent. Well, by last spring, even if I believed only 50 percent of the rumors (about Perry and Koeze), it was pretty bad.”

Rude said that she approached board members about the rumors in May, and she said that others did as well.

VerHey said he had multiple people approach him about the rumors, and he finally went straight to Perry in May.

“I wasn’t doing it as a union president but as a colleague,” VerHey said. “I told him, ‘I’ve heard these rumors, and I’m concerned that it’s hurting your reputation and the district’s reputation.’"

Perry flatly denied anything inappropriate was occurring, VerHey said. “He said it was just rumors.”

By fall, the superintendent was no longer denying a relationship with a co-worker.

Perry, whose wife filed for divorce in August, told the Gazette in October that he had shared information about a “private, personal matter” with the board regarding the allegations of an affair. He also said his actions did not violate district or board policy.

However, the board issued a statement in December saying their investigation "confirmed” the rumors “and established facts" that Perry breached his contract.

At a Dec. 14 special meeting, the board suspended Perry and started the process to terminate him for contract violations.

Perry continues to maintain that his actions have not violated board or district polices.

When submitting his resignation Monday, he said he was doing so “under protest.”

“I own my part in this,” Perry said Monday, but added: “I’m looking forward to arbitration.”

Zahrt said the Perry controversy “is unfortunate, but it shouldn’t reflect on the district.”

“There are a lot of really, really good teachers and administrators and support staff in Portage Public Schools,” Zahrt said. “It really is one of the best districts around.”